Garage Cinema

[Alicatt1]

Part 1
Having had a nice surround system in my house back in the UK I decided I would like a dedicated cinema in my house here in Belgium. Over a couple of years I put together some equipment and started modifying my built in garage which the previous owner had turned into a small office and store.
Garage as I bought the house




Emptied the room out


And brought in a home wrecker Sis-inlaw weilds a mean hammer...


Partition wall removed


Second wall and extra insulation where the garage door was and where the screen will be


Cuttout for projector in staircase to celler and new doorway being fitted also boxing in the cooker extraction and waterpipes.


Screen wall plastered


Door fitted and getting plastered


Allow the wife to paint the wall, her choice of flat black


Ceiling and screen wall painted matt black and walls painted with a flat grey

[Alicatt1]

Part 2
Rest of the room


Installing the equipment in the alcove behind the celler stairs


From the bottom up: Pioneer Susano SC90LX 10.1 Amp, Telenet HD Digibox, Humanx HD Freesat, Oppo BDP83 Blu-ray player (Superclocked), JVC SVHS VCR, Sony MiniDisc player/recorder, (noy fitted yet) PS3 slim, Hitachi tapedeck, (Not fitted yet) Akai turntable.

Carpet fitted and cables run in the basement to the front speakers and sub.




PMC OB1i front and CB6i centre speakers



Reclining seat installed and film storage moved into cinema, and my collection of old cameras, and Pioneer KRF9000 projector in it's box.


Avatar on the screen

[OldSkoolRS]

I'm loving that, nice to see you haven't wasted a dedicate room by painting it magnolia as so many seem to. I'm a PMC owner too though only the TB2+ models (biamped with Arcam power amps though, so giving their all).

The cupboard to the left hand side of the screen could be painted a darker colour to reduce reflections back to the screen as I find that the first metre or so makes the most difference. I didn't see what projector (HD100?) you have and if you are using an anamorphic lens?

EDIT. Beaten by your second post, I see it's the Pioneer 'copy' of the HD100, still a good projector even these days, I'd recommend a Lumagen Mini3D to give it CMS to help reign in the oversaturated colours (very similar to my HD350 in that respect).

Edited by OldSkoolRS on Tuesday 16th August 21:02

[Alicatt1]

Thanks, I'm loving the PMCs I also use a pair of GB1i for the rear, I still want to deaden the sound a bit at the front and have some panels I have made ready to be fitted when I get time. You really don't notice any reflections from the sides, the grey is very dark with just a hint of red in it I had to flood the front with light as well as using the flash on the camera to get a bright enough pic to show. The anamorphic lens is on the list of "to dos" and was taken into account in mounting the PJ, just now I just zoom to fill the screen and it works fine enough though I have to reach through the apeture to use the lens shift to recentre the image. I've had the Pio. PJ for a few years now and it has done good service but the motion blur in fast paced scenes drives me crazy at times, I have a newer inFocus 8600 for the bedroom and it has almost as bad motion blur.
I have calibrated the PJ since those pictures were taken, it looks much better now and it is not oversaturated (a personal hate that!) It took me a long time to buy a flat screen TV just because I couldn't find one with a good picture but now I have a Pioneer Kuro 9050 plasma in the lounge which I got at a great discount from the local TV shop.
Yesterday my son wanted to listen to some drum/bass/techno/hardstyle with his mates and he turned up the gain on the sub, a REL Storm 2, and now I'm going to have to recalibrate it again, he had his mum in a state about shaking the foundations of the house and rattling the windows in the lounge. At reference level you can hardly hear the sound ouside the room but the sub can energise the cellar and it amplifies the bass a lot.
Thanks for the tip on the Lumagen I'll give it a look.

[OldSkoolRS]

I use an Isco II lens with mine, but you need a long throw with it as it's a smaller lens than the much dearer Isco III. If you look into the Lumagen and then calibrate with that you'll realise that adjusting the greyscale is only half the story as our projectors don't have a CMS and are oversaturated without one. It can almost seem a bit dull at first as you don't have those overly neon greens and people's faces don't look sunburnt, but the picture looks so much better. I had a demo of the new JVC X7 and didn't think it looked significantly better, so that saved me a major expense (not fussed about 3D).

[NorthDave]

Alicatt1 said:

I still want to deaden the sound a bit at the front and have some panels I have made ready to be fitted when I get time.

Are they a bit like these - Artcoustic Absorbers??

They are pretty cool as you can get them covered in any digital image so blending them in to the interior isn't a problem.

[RedLeicester]

Glad to see the PMCs, nice to see someone has taste!

I would recommend the PMC sub as a better match than the REL though...

Looking good. Many reflection problems with the tiled floor?

[OldSkoolRS]

Good as PMC speakers are the sub gets very poor reviews. Some of the guys over on AVForums have tried it and compared to other makes such as REL and even the low cost UK based BK Monolith and the PMC came off worse. No need for 'matching' a sub to speakers anyway as it's not like having to match a centre speaker to the right and left fronts for example.

[Alicatt1]

RedLeicester said:

Glad to see the PMCs, nice to see someone has taste!

I would recommend the PMC sub as a better match than the REL though...

Looking good. Many reflection problems with the tiled floor?

None at all, it was carpeted over and with a good thick sound absorbing underlay under it, there is a 30mm "step" between the tiled floor and the flooring in the rest of the house so ther was plenty of scope. The room is 6.5m x 4.3m and 2.65 high and is on top of a 8m x 5m x2m high cellar.
The REL is an old friend it was one of the last Storm2 but with the newer Storm 3 Amp and I got it back in 1998, it matched my Tannoy Precission speakers well and was driven from a Teac AV receiver (DG9500). I have used that system right up until january this year when I put the cinema together, for music it was great and for films it was good but suffered from lack of discrete inputs and no DTS and with me wanting to go to BLu-Ray I didn't have a choice, I had to get a new amp etc.

[Alicatt1]

I use a X-Rite i one Display2 colourimeter and Calman software with either the Spears and Munsil disk that came with the Oppo or the AVS forums rec701 disk to keep the colour tamed a bit. I'm throwing the image from about 5m to a screen that is 3.5m x 1.5m and the screen is just Dulux Lumispace painted on the wall so I was a bit worried that it was going to be a bit dim but it has exceded my fears and gives a great image, I'm happy with it ... for now.
I did a simillar treatment to the bedroom wall but the whole wall is painted white and not with lumispace either, I couldn't get that here 3 years ago.

[RedLeicester]

OldSkoolRS said:

Good as PMC speakers are the sub gets very poor reviews. Some of the guys over on AVForums have tried it and compared to other makes such as REL and even the low cost UK based BK Monolith and the PMC came off worse. No need for 'matching' a sub to speakers anyway as it's not like having to match a centre speaker to the right and left fronts for example.

Interesting, I've googled but not found any such poor reviews? Odd, as I've always found them excellent in both studio and lounge.

[OldSkoolRS]

RedLeicester said:

Interesting, I've googled but not found any such poor reviews? Odd, as I've always found them excellent in both studio and lounge.

Yes the PMC speakers are great, but they dropped the ball on the sub as it barely goes any deeper than some of the floorstanders, which is understandable given the small size of the boz and the drivers.

I quickly found this mini review, but I've seen others even by a guy on AVForums who is known as a real PMC addict having owned nearly ever model they make in a continual upgrade cycle.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/subwoofers-tactile-...

[RedLeicester]

OldSkoolRS said:

RedLeicester said:

Interesting, I've googled but not found any such poor reviews? Odd, as I've always found them excellent in both studio and lounge.

Yes the PMC speakers are great, but they dropped the ball on the sub as it barely goes any deeper than some of the floorstanders, which is understandable given the small size of the boz and the drivers.

I quickly found this mini review, but I've seen others even by a guy on AVForums who is known as a real PMC addict having owned nearly ever model they make in a continual upgrade cycle.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/subwoofers-tactile-...

Ah. The TLE1 is supposed to go with the ikkle DB1s, not with the far larger speakers...

[Alicatt1]

OldSkoolRS said:

I quickly found this mini review, but I've seen others even by a guy on AVForums who is known as a real PMC addict having owned nearly ever model they make in a continual upgrade cycle.

For a second there I thought you meant Vipers, he has had a few too...;)
there is a thread running there about PMC speakers of all sizes and denominations
http://www.avforums.com/forums/speakers/1104013-pm...

[OldSkoolRS]

Yes it was Vipers I meant, but I couldn't find the post when he tried out the TLE1. I think he said it was OK for music as it's a 'fast' sub but it just doesn't go deep enough for movies. Vipers has started his own AV shop now I think 'zinc HT' or similar.

[Alicatt1]

Not heard the TLE1, when I auditioned my system it was with a Velodyne sub either a 1200 or 1500 can't remember. Initially I was looking at the Pioneer S-1EX surround packeage but in direct comparison I found the PMC OB1i just that bit more detailed but there wasn't much in it I would have been happy with either ones but as the PMC were a few k cheaper at least that satisfied my Scottish heritage

[RedLeicester]

I'll wager it sounds pretty damned good. I'll wager it sounds pretty damned good.

[OldSkoolRS]

Considering that my front three are the standmount version of your surrounds, I can only imagine how great it sounds. I nearly bought a seconhand CB6, but remembered what happended the last time I upgraded my centre (I had DB1+ at first and picked up a used TB2+ centre) and it unbalanced the front, so it would be a slippery slope to getting bigger left and rights too. However I haven't any room left each side of my screen hence the TB2+ modified to use the PMC wall brackets (at least the Antimode EQ'd Monolith helps make up for the lack of bass compared to your mighty OB1s.

My biggest issue at the moment is finding something to watch on my setup. I've gone through loads of discs as I rent online with Blockbuster and now there's not much I'm interested in seeing. I'm hoping once the dark nights kick in that I'll find some films I want to watch...to much special effects/made for 3D and no plot at the moment.

[Alicatt1]

Heartly agree there about the state of the film industry just now, too many Reboots and remakes even Conan the Barbarian remake is in the cinema from tomorrow here. I use a home server to keep my DVD collection on and it helps with the kids if they want to watch something diffrent then they can grab it and stream from the server to their laptops. I have 14TB of storage and 4 of that is just DVDs and I havn't put them all on it yet

Oh I see that PMC have just brought out a Signature version of the OB1i

[RedLeicester]

Alicatt1 said:

Oh I see that PMC have just brought out a Signature version of the OB1i

Nah. They're a good step up, but not a step far enough.

IB2i's will see you happy.


The accountant less so.